Malaysia's women doubles pair Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan smashed their way into the quarter-finals of the Paris Olympics when they beat Indonesia's world No. 9 Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Ramadhanti 21-18, 21-9 in their last Group A match today.
Pearly-Thinaah needed to win in straight games to make it into the last eight and rose to the occasion.
The victory meant that the world No. 13 pair managed to overtake Japan's two-time former world champions Mayu Matsumoto-Wakana Nagahara to second spot in the toughest group in the competition after the latter had earlier lost 16-21, 15-21 to China's world No. 1 Chen Qingchen-Jia Yifan.
[Earlier, Qingchen-Yifan secured a 21-16, 21-15 victory over Matsumoto-Nagahara in their final match to top Group A].
Pearly-Thinaah are only the second Malaysian women's doubles pair to make it into the last eight in the Olympics since Vivian Hoo-Woon Khe Wei in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.
[Kindly note that men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik and mixed doubles pair Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei too have confirmed their tickets to the 2024 Paris Olympics quarterfinals].
We've not won a gold medal at the Olympics. Can we depend on Pearly-Thinaah as well as Aaron-Wooi Yik and Tang Jie-Ee Wei to break the duck in Paris?
FYI, at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, cyclist Azizulhasni Awang clinched silver, while badminton duo Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik brought home bronze.
These victories were a proud continuation of the success Malaysia tasted at 2016 Rio, our most triumphant Olympics, where we secured four silvers and a bronze. Our silver medalists were Lee Chong Wei in the men’s singles category for badminton; Goh Wei Shem and Tan Wee Kiong in the men’s doubles category for badminton, Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying in the mixed doubles category for badminton; and Pandelela Rinong and Cheong Jun Hoong in the women’s synchronised 10m platform for diving. And the bronze went to Azizulhasni Awang in the men’s keirin category for cycling track.
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